The Way Things Were
by Thanatos Angelos Girl
Summary: Oneshot. 1,000 words "Three maidens wrapped so closely in the comfort of each other and who stood so tall and strong together came apart when men and their lives split them apart."


**The Way Things Were**

_**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.**_

_**A/N: This is again for the Quotes Remix challenge and this was inspired by my friend Ben's quote, which is **__**"You think he could forgive me, even if I've done terrible things? Even if I've killed hundreds and tortured even more?" This is what happens when I go on a Black sisters obsession (expect more stories for those girls). **_

Narcissa Malfoy wished things could go back to the way they were when they were teenagers, all three sisters hand in hand and inseparable. She wished to be in Hogwarts again with her young naivety and her carefree attitude. She wanted things to be simpler like they were back then. She wanted the most important people in her life here with her and happy.

To only think it had been three years since she left Hogwarts. To think she already wanted to be back in those safe walls and away from a beast of a thing that swallowed one of her sisters.

_The beast was mad (in both senses of the word), blood thirsty, and broken like shards of glass. The Death Eaters swallowed Bella alive and spat her out harsher and colder than she was before._

Narcissa is sure the Death Eaters caused her oldest sister to change into a ruthless killer that had no time to listen or care for Narcissa anymore. Bella wasn't the same. Bella wasn't Bella but rather Bellatrix the mad and devoted Death Eater.

Narcissa remembers when Bella wasn't Bellatrix and the soft whispers that comforted her when she was scared and the laughs Bella laughed in the privacy of her and Andy.

_Andy._

She felt her heart crack and she felt the tears glisten in her eyes once more. Andy had been kind and a little motherly while Bella had been adventurous and thrilling but oh so caring. Narcissa had been the fragile flower to her sisters, the one that was watered and grew by their kindness while to others she had been an ice queen.

Narcissa felt so cold and wilted with out her sisters and with out their love. She wished and prayed for things to change but she wasn't her childhood self and she knew the truth. She knew there was no changing but there was still that ray of hope in her, deep in her.

The first Death Eater meeting she attended with her new husband the next day after all those thoughts came out of Narcissa was sheer horror. Narcissa watched her sister "put on a show" and torture a man in the room. Narcissa watched him writhe and scream eventually begging to die. She felt her heart plummet as she stared at her beloved sister. Was Bella in that body anymore?

Was anything like she remembered it anymore or was everything taking new levels? She asked Bella that night to meet with her in the Malfoy Manor in her chambers. She wanted to know what fate, what future she was resigned to.

That night Narcissa met with her sister and she sat down with her and told her how she felt. She looked at her sister for her response.

"This was coming Cissy and you know it. This was what everything was going to be minus _her_. What do you want? For all of us to become weak and watch the Mudbloods take over our world? Our birthright? Do you want me to walk to Dumbledore and ask him for forgiveness? You think he could forgive me, even if I've done terrible things? Even if I've killed hundreds and tortured even more? Do you think everything would be fine and we would ride down rainbows on unicorns? Cissy this is what everything has come to. Grow up. I have and you need to." Bella ranted crushing her hope.

Narcissa flinched at Bella's anger and she looked down at her pale slender hands. She knew this was a mistake. She just wanted everything back to the way they were. She wanted to be loved and be near her sisters. She gulped and waited for Bella to leave. She would, she would be too mad to look at Narcissa.

She felt Bella's slightly calloused hand lift her head up to meet Bella's gaze. Her breath hitched at the expression in those dark brown eyes. She seemed more like Bella in that moment than Cissy had seen her look before. She watched as Bella wiped her tears away from her tear stained cheeks and she gazed back at her eyes not breaking that stare, brown soulful eyes staring into teary cerulean eyes.

They stayed in that position for what seemed like an eternity and then Bella disappeared and Bellatrix was there and her hand and herself left Cissy to the other side of the room in almost a second. Bellatrix was there; with her wild mania and her distantness but for some reason Narcissa could see sorrow.

"Bella?" She whispers and her sister's sorrow leaves her face.

"Cissy, remember how close we used to be? We can't be that way. I have to devote myself to my Lord. I can't be that close to you." Bella whispers and Narcissa frowns.

"Why? What-?" Cissy asks. Bella, Andy, and her used to have a close relationship before their loves and lives split them up. Why couldn't it go back-?

"I can't care about you more than him. Don't ask that of me because he's my…. my…Lucifer. You can't ask me to love you or be so close to you like before." Bella said.

Bella left and Narcissa stood up. Did she really just say the Dark Lord was more important than her and Bella couldn't care about anyone else but him? Was Narcissa really left behind?

Later, that night became significant and that was the mark of when Narcissa and Bella finally split apart and when Narcissa devoted herself to her husband and her son. Narcissa loved her sisters but they had all left her behind for the men they cared about and Narcissa grew to numb herself so she could be fine and soon she was but she still couldn't believe the tighter than tight Black sisters could be destroyed by men.

_Three maidens wrapped so closely in the comfort of each other and who stood so tall and strong together came apart when men and their lives split them apart._

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